


Krogan Search and Rescue Specialist

by bagog



Series: New Skill Set [3]
Category: Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Family Fluff, Fluff, Kid Fic, M/M, Medical Trauma, Post-Canon, Post-War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-09
Updated: 2017-12-09
Packaged: 2019-02-12 14:31:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,740
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12961410
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bagog/pseuds/bagog
Summary: Kaidan and Shepard's young son, Shaun, needs their help to find a missing soldier.





	Krogan Search and Rescue Specialist

**Author's Note:**

> Special thanks in order to bgbcps on tumblr, who has inspired this story. I'm sorry you had to wait so long, I hope you like it! Also special thanks to Estalfaed, who has pushing me to actually POST the things I write. Thank you very much. 
> 
> Here's a whole buncha fluff.

“Shaun!” Kaidan called down the hallway, leaning out of the door to the master bedroom. “It’s too late, babs, you’re going to be fine!”

The sink had been running in the hallway bathroom for almost 20 minutes while Kaidan bustled around the house on his comms.

“I had no idea he was so worried,” Shepard said from the bed. It was a bad morning for his back, and it had taken him a good five minutes to get his left shoe on. He was taking a breather before attempting the right shoe.

“I wish he cared about his teeth this much the _rest_ of the year,” Kaidan huffed, sweetening the pronouncement with a hint of a smile.

Shepard stared down at his other shoe, and part of him knew he was regarding it with about the same level of excitement with which his son usually eyed-up his tooth brush. Except, of course, today was dentist day. And the only thing worse than brushing your teeth for three minutes every single morning and night was being told by the dentist that you weren’t doing it enough.

“He’s got your attention to detail,” Shepard said the words to Kaidan’s back, to his crossed arms, tried to make the words gentle enough where Kaidan would catch them as he rounded his corner, pacing the room. Getting off this morning so they could take Shaun to the dentist’s office had been hell on his work schedule, and Kaidan’s assistant had been on the comms all morning—that is, when Sparatus wasn’t trying to go over his assistant’s head for something. “He always wants to be perfect for inspection.”

“He’s scared to death of doctors, that’s what he is,” Kaidan snorted. Shepard blinked. Kaidan turned on his heel, eyes dark, like he had just come out of some sort of trance. “Shepard, I didn’t mean—“

“It’s okay,” Shepard held up a hand. But he set his palm on the mattress next to him, and Kaidan took the gentle invitation to join him on the bed. Of course Shaun would be afraid of doctors, considering the childhood he’d had. His Dad holding him on his lap in the waiting room while Papa went in for a check-up. Watching the way Shepard blanched every time Dr. Chakwas came over for an in-home consultation.

When he was a little younger, all he knew about doctors was that his Papa would look bad, would go to the doctor, and come back worse. Saw the way Shepard ground his teeth and shook his head on those cold nights where Kaidan had to urge ‘It doesn’t _matter_ that it’s the middle of the night, we’re getting you to the clinic. _Now_.’

Sometimes Shepard wished he actually had the strength to talk to his son about ‘The Big Accident’. If Shaun had been old enough to remember that time, maybe he’d be a little more grateful having doctors around for his Papa.

But that was a thought that was going to get Shepard in trouble. He’d been a very different sort of man before… that. And, with the pain shooting up his back and the little trickle of fear down the back of his throat whenever it came time to take care of Shaun, he wished maybe Shaun could have _that_ Papa instead. It made it worse when Shaun picked up on those feelings. Sort of worse, sort of better. The kid had Kaidan’s capacity to feel the melancholy Shepard was swimming in with just a touch on his Papa’s hand.

“This kid’s too perceptive for us, Shepard.” Kaidan’s weight on the bed made it easy for Shepard to lean his head on his husband’s shoulder. “It’s not either of our fault, not really. He just… he’s got a good set of eyes on him.”

“And a big heart.”

Kaidan ran a hand down Shepard’s back, thumb always finding the synthetic ganglia that ran parallel to Shepard’s spine, but pretending he wasn’t feeling for it.

“How’s your back?” He kissed Shepard’s cheek.

“Hurts…”

“I’m really sorry,” Kaidan smiled, but his brow crumpled the way it did when he wasn’t sure how sorry he should be.

“Why?” Shepard turned, nuzzled Kaidan’s nose, “I was begging for it, last night. _And_ this morning. Would rather you listened to me, hmm?”

“You wouldn’t be hurting so much.”

“Just means I know you’ll listen when I beg you to help me with this other shoe, too.”

Kaidan laughed against his lips.

“Kiss me first.”

“Stop talking and I will…”

Barely a taste of his husband’s lips, and Kaidan’s omni-tool chirruped.

“Hell,” Kaidan growled. He looked down at his wrist. “It’s Valern. What is going _on_ up there, today!” He checked the time, “We need to leave in the next 20 or we’re going to get caught in shipping traffic.”

“Take the call. I’m going to make sure Shaun’s ready. If he keeps running that water, you’re going to have a conniption.”

Kaidan mouthed a ‘thank you’ to him just before the screen in the bedroom flickered on and he addressed Councilor Valern with the sternest possible expression. Shepard limped out of the room, still dressed in just a single shoe, and made his way down the hall.

The bathroom was empty, and Shepard reached over to switch off the water.

“Shaun?” He knocked at Shaun’s door—mostly open, but still—and waited till he heard a squeak from inside. “Come on, bud, Dad’s on a call and then we have to go right away.” He pushed the door open, “You left the water running, is everything okay?”

“Yeah,” Shaun stood in the middle of his room, hands behind his back, ready for inspection, amidst an unholy mess. “I’m almost ready…”

Shepard looked at the toys, pillows, and clothes flopped all over the floor.

“Okay, got your shoes on?”

“Yeah.” Shaun’s lip quivered, he showed Shepard the back of his shoes to demonstrate he was fully wearing them and hadn’t just slipped into them already tied.

“…okay then.  How can I help you finish getting ready, kiddo?”

Shaun looked to the side.

“ _Okay guys, I’m done with the Councilor! Everybody ready? Baby, where’d you leave that other shoe?”_ Kaidan called down the hall. “ _Never mind, got it!_ ”

Shepard looked down at his son again, his eyes were almost pleading, but his mouth was shut tight.

“Kaidan,” Shepard called back. “Shaun needs our help with something real quick.”

“Okay, but we’ve got fifteen minutes…” Kaidan rounded the corner into the bedroom brandishing Shepard’s other shoe. “Oh, babs, what’s up, huh?” He immediately dropped to one knee. Shepard wished he could do that so easily, sometimes.

“It’s… Urdnot Squish,” their son answered, looking back up at Kaidan. The plush krogan Shepard had given him the first night he and Kaidan had to stay in the hospital with Shepard.

“Can’t find him?”

Shaun shook his head.

“Well, can you make do without him until—“ But Shepard stopped when he saw the way Shaun’s face tensed up. And sure enough, it was a face Shepard made all the time: the refusal to allow himself to admit just how awful he was feeling. Shepard never wanted to see that look on his son’s face… he knew all about pain, and he never wanted Shaun to feel that either. But after the Big Accident, the only thing he could imagine being worse for his child was him trying to _hide_ that pain. “Erm… I mean, do you think _Urdnot Squish_ can make do without you for a couple hours?”

Shaun frowned. Opened his mouth, then closed it.

“Hmm?”

“I’m his _krant_ ,” Shaun whispered.

Kaidan set the shoe down.

“Don’t worry, we’ll find him. Huh?”

Shaun nodded vigorously, something between a miserable grimace and a smile of relief.

“You remember where you left him, son?” Shepard mussed up Shaun’s hair just a little bit. The boy shook his head. “Were you playing with him somewhere? Did you take him out last time we got to the restaurant? Did you let Xia play with him maybe? Did you—“

Kaidan cleared his throat. Shepard took the hint, and Kaidan took over.

“Looks like you’ve been searching in here pretty good, babs,” Kaidan rose to his feet and put his hands on his hips: a performance that always made Shaun feel like _now_ things were going to start happening. He turned to Shepard and said in a low voice so only his husband could hear: “ _God this room is trashed…”_

“I can’t find him! I looked and looked!” Shaun cried.

“Okay, don’t worry. Your Papa’s Commander Shepard, he’s done his fair share of search and rescues.” He rubbed Shepard’s shoulder gently, “What’s the plan, Commander?”

Shepard chuckled. Shaun never looked up at him with as much adoration as he did when Kaidan directed his attention.

“Why don’t you two search up here and I’ll—“

Kaidan cleared his throat again and Shepard bit his lip and started over.

“Why don’t you and me search downstairs, Shaun, and Kay, you can look up here?”

“Got it,” Kaidan winked, before turning back to Shaun. “Now, you’re _sure_ you searched in here good enough, kiddo? Don’t need me to look through here again?”

“No. I searched everywhere. He’s not here.”

“Okay, then,” said Kaidan, then, a whisper to Shepard, “ _I’m going to look in here again_.”

Shepard nodded, tried not to laugh.

“We’ll be quick, see you downstairs in a few. We’ll, uh. We’ll re-assess if we need to.”

“Great,” Kaidan was fussily smoothing Shaun’s hair with one hand. “I’m going to make a call to the dentist and let him know we might be a little late. Then—“

“Don’t call Valern,” Shepard deadpanned.

“I should let him know, if I think I’m going to be late…”

“ _Don’t_ call Valern. Let ‘em wait.”

Kaidan sighed, but nodded his assent.

“C’mon, son,” Shepard winked down at Shaun, trying to do his best impression of Kaidan’s wink. He tapped his own shoulder twice and Shaun’s eyes lit up. He raced over to a little step ladder by the door, using the extra height to scramble up onto Shepard’s shoulders without his Papa having to stoop down.

Kaidan bit his lip at the ‘oof’ Shepard made when Shaun settled his legs on either side of Shepard’s neck, but Shepard tried to give his husband, too, a conspiratorial wink. But, of course, using Kaidan’s own fake conspiratorial wink on the man himself was doomed to failure.

“Alright, boys,” Kaidan crossed his arms at last. “Best of luck, I’ll start going through things up here.”

Shaun pressed himself down on Shepard’s head to clear the top frame of the door, and they were off.

“Where too first, son?” Shepard bounced his shoulder just a little bit.

“I don’t know,” Shaun mumbled. “I’m sorry… I don’t know where I left him.”

“I thought…” Shepard tightened his grip on Shaun’s shins when they started making their way downstairs to the living room. Shaun always got a little dizzy on the stairs when he was up on Shepard’s back. Shepard took the steps slow on a good day, but with his son on his shoulders and only one shoe, he was even more careful. “Weren’t you playing with him…? Hmm, I feel like I saw you with him… Hmm.”

“I brought him with us when we got noodles.”

“That was a week ago. And I definitely remember cleaning some _Tuchanka tickler_ sauce off him in the car on the way back.” The living room lay before them like a galaxy full of hiding-places. “He’s pretty important to you, huh, son?”

“Uh huh,” Shaun whispered. ‘How could he just leave something so important to him and forget about it?’ Shepard knew the question was going through his son’s head. He got that worry from watching Shepard, for sure. Kids can pick up some pretty grown-up worries when their dad is an old broken soldier….

But that thought was going to get him in trouble, too.

“We’ll just have to think like Krogan, then,” Shepard tried to laugh, but he was never very good at that, either.

“Daddy said you used to rescue Krogan a lot,” Shaun quipped when Shepard turned towards the office. “What did you do?” He always got a little braver asking questions about Shepard’s past when Kaidan wasn’t there to give him a limiting shake of the head.

“Oh all kinds of search and rescues,” Shepard said. He gave the room a quick visual survey. “Bailed Uncle Wrex out of trouble a few times. First time I met him, I was trying to track him down in the Wards so we could…” His son probably didn’t need to know about Fist, or his Aunt Tali’s near-death encounter with his Aunt Liara’s predecessor. “…go on a mission.”

“Uncle Wrex told me you and him and Dad blew a mobster away!”

Shepard sighed, listened for a moment for Kaidan’s disapproving shout from upstairs, then set about inspecting the shelves, letting Shaun go through the top shelves from his elevated position.

“Uncle _Wrex_ did the shooting.”

“Was Uncle Wrex there when Daddy found you after the big explosion?”

Shepard winced.

“No,” he said softly, pause what he was doing. Remembering being under the rubble. Remembering the hospital. “No. And Daddy didn’t find be right after the explosion. I saw him in the hospital, later.”

“You always said Dad _found_ you.”

“Yeah,” Shepard sighed. “He did, but… well, a team of marines got my body out of the rubble but… it’s hard to explain.” Shepard trailed off, then noticed how uncomfortably quiet Shaun had become: afraid he’d gone too far in asking Papa about his past. “But anyway, uh. I know all about, um, search and rescue. And I know all about krogan, too. Should find your little friend in no time. Helped Grunt out more than a few times, too. His company got lost in the…” Shepard couldn’t remember the name of the system, anymore. And it had been so important to him. “Uh, someplace. They got ambushed and we helped to bail them out.” Shepard didn’t think Grunt would have told Shaun about _that_ mission. “Mordin and I were with him for his rite of passage. That’s how I became his battle master.”

“Wow!”

“You know what that is?” Shepard looked up to find his son curling over his head to stare down at his Papa’s face in wonder.

“Yeah! Uncle Wrex talks about how you and Daddy and him are going to have to fight over who gets to be _my_ battle master when I’m old enough.”

“Yeesh,” Shepard grimaced, shoulders starting to feel the strain of his son on his aching back when he got back out to the bar in the family room. “We’re your dads, we get first bid, right?”

Shaun giggled coyly.

“…don’t grow up too fast, okay, son?” Shepard said, letting Shaun off his shoulders on the bar. Eye to eye with him, Shaun sort of nodded then sort of shook his head. “Plenty of soldiers in the galaxy, only one you, huh?”

“Okay, Papa, I know,” Shaun mumbled, then hopped down to the floor.  

“And only one Urdnot Squish, too. You start searching those couch cushion, I’ll go through the bar. We have to get you to the dentist.”

“Not without Urdnot Squish!?” Shaun cried.

“No, of course not!”

“But,” Shaun looked up the stairs, listening for Kaidan, then scurried over to grab Shepard’s hand, “What if we don’t have time to find him?” He whispered.

“We have time. Come on, let’s search the bar together.”

Shaun took the lower cabinets this time while Shepard searched every place he could think Shaun might be able to climb up to. They searched the rest of the family room and the guest bedroom and the living room in silence: nothing. Shaun was becoming visibly agitated at the lack of progress, and Shepard was plenty frustrated, too. He took Shaun’s hand and they made for the kitchen—the unlikeliest place for Squish to have hidden without being seen, and they both knew it.

“You know, Shaun,” Shepard said softly, “You don’t need to be scared of the doctor.”

Shaun shrugged.

“He’s just checking your teeth, giving them a good clean. Won’t even take them out of your head.”

Shaun’s eyes got wide and Shepard winced, cursing himself.

“Erm, um, what I mean is: he’s the good guy.”

Shaun stopped in his tracks, sniffled.

“I don’t want to… be away,” Shaun said hushed. “I want to be able to come home.”

‘Be away.’ The same way Shepard was ‘away’ in the hospital after the accident whenever his crew tried to stop by the apartment to see their family. The excuse Kaidan gave to protect Shepard’s pride even years later whenever his condition was acting up again. It made Shepard ache through every fiber of his cybernetics and every hasty graft of regrown tissue.

“Oh sweetheart,” Shepard pressed his son to his hug in as much of a hug as his back would allow without him stooping down. “You won’t, son. You won’t. It’s just a quick little cleaning.”

“I know,” Shaun grimaced, “I just don’t like it.”

“Hey,” Shepard tipped Shaun’s chin up with a finger, “I don’t either, son. But it’s going to be alright. Daddy’s going to be there and so will I. And you’ll feel better afterwards. I always do.”

“I just… I just want to make sure I have Urdnot Squish with me…” Shaun’s ears were a little pink. “Maybe sometime I won’t need him but… I want him with me. For now.”

The kid had too much swirling around in his head. He deserved a friend like Urdnot Squish. He deserved a father like Kaidan. He deserved everything Shepard had to give—old Shepard or new Shepard.

“Yeah,” Shepard smiled. “I want him there too, buddy. Come on.”

“Okay.”

It was time to start backtracking, but Shaun had a little more spring in his step. Shepard was practically ready to start tearing the _house_ apart to find this krogan when he stopped to rest at the piano bench. Leaning back against the keys, gently, the piano hummed softly.

Except something was off.

Shepard turned around, ran his fingers up the scale… there was a strange ‘ploink’ between B7 and E8. Shaun gasped.

“He’s in the piano!!”

“What the hell?” Shepard said, before he could help himself.

“Yeah yeah yeah yeah,” Shaun dashed over, tugging on Shepard’s sleeve. “I always wanted to lift the piano cover, because it’s so heavy, and I brought Squish along to make me strong.” He was practically breathless, bouncing up and down in place. “And I _did_ it! And I wanted to tell you and Daddy but I didn’t because _then_  I thought I would play a trick on you next time you played piano so I stationed Squish inside the piano to hold the strings but then I forgot about him because _Destiny and the Sword_ was on and you and Daddy stayed in bed all morning and had the door closed and your back hurt and you didn’t play the piano and so I forgot about him!”

Shepard lifted up the piano lid and sure enough, lying on the keys with his stitched, shit-eating grin stained with _tummy tickler_ sauce was Urdnot Squish: proud son of Tuchanka.

Shaun practically leapt up to pluck the toy from inside the piano and gave it a satisfying squeeze.

“I’m sorry, Squish. I promise I’ll be better,” Shaun assured his companion. With that he rushed off to the office, probably making a bee-line for Shepard’s computer terminal, towing the krogan along behind him.

Just like that. And the plush doll forgave him, obviously. As if he’d never been forgotten. As if he’d never be forgotten again.

Shepard had forgotten so much: so many memories were nothing more than colored points of light on a galaxy map software interface in his mind. Systems and planets and even allies his couldn’t catch the name of anymore when they swam through his mind. He was even starting to forget some of the hospital nights.

But he remembered bringing Shaun home. His first tooth. His second, third, and fourth teeth, too. And what time all Shaun’s favorite shows were on. And now he’d remember Shaun’s favorite hiding spot better, too.

“Well done, Commander,” came Kaidan’s voice, leaning on the balcony railing with a grin on his face and Shepard’s shoe in his hand.

“How long have _you_ been standing there?” Shepard set the piano lid back down.

“Long enough.” Kaidan waggled his eyebrows, “And Shaun’s room is a whole lot more organized, now…”

“Who knows how long our resident krogan would have been on assignment if my back wasn’t killing me?” Shepard chuckled.

“I feel less bad about last night, now.”

“You shouldn’t feel bad about it at all.”

Kaidan guffawed.

“Just need to make sure we spend more time in bed on messages in the morning, less time… going for round 2.”

“And let our son tromp all over the house trying to lift things and sending his krant on unapproved assignments? We may never have sex again.”

“He’s got a good head on his shoulders,” Kaidan made his way down the steps.

“I wish I had more to give him,” Shepard sighed when Kaidan was close enough to speak in a hushed tone. “He sees how much I worry about things, and that makes him worry.”

“He worries because he loves you.” Kaidan rubbed his arm. “Now take a seat so I can put this other shoe on you. You look ridiculous.”

Shepard sat down on the hearth and his husband kneeled in front of him a moment later, guiding his foot into the other shoe. The same way he had many times on weekends and in the middle of the night to rush him to the clinic. It was going to be okay as long as Kaidan was there. Every time. Kaidan’s eyes were beach-sun warm in the firelight when he looked up at Shepard.

“What’re you looking at?” Shepard whispered with a smile.

“Nothing,” Kaidan said. “Just getting a real good look at that smile.”

“Hurry up!” came Shaun’s shout from the back office. “We’re ready to go! Let’s get it over with! Wait, I’m gonna brush my teeth again!”

Kaidan leaned up, one kiss for Shepard’s lips and another for his brow.

“I love you.”

“I love you.”

**Author's Note:**

> Wow it's been such a rough time, lately. Thank you so much for reading all the way through that fluffy, fluffy, tooth-rotting fluffiness. Means a lot you took the time, I really appreciate you taking the time!


End file.
